English and Welsh bishops make a statement:

Human embryos injected with animal cells, or chimeras, should be accorded human status under proposals to be considered by the British Parliament in the fall, said the Catholic bishops of England and Wales.

They also said politicians should reconsider a proposed ban on the implantation of chimeras into women.

"In particular, it should not be a crime to transfer them, or other human embryos, to the body of the woman providing the ovum, in cases where a human ovum has been used to create them," the bishops said.

"Such a woman is the genetic mother, or partial mother, of the embryo; should she have a change of heart and wish to carry her child to term, she should not be prevented from doing so," they added.

The bishops’ June 20 submission to a parliamentary committee set up to scrutinize the draft Human Tissue and Embryo Bill was prepared by a committee overseen by Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, Wales, chairman of the English and Welsh bishops’ Department for Christian Responsibility and Citizenship.

At present it is illegal in Britain to create embryos using a mix of human and animal genetic material, but the government is proposing to allow scientists, for the first time, to create human-animal embryos for research as long as they are destroyed within two weeks.

In their submission, the bishops said that most of the procedures covered by the bill "should not be licensed under any circumstances," principally on the grounds that they violate human rights.

However, they said, "at very least, embryos with a preponderance of human genes should be assumed to be embryonic human beings and should be treated accordingly," they said.

The bill has been designed as an overhaul of the laws on fertility treatment and would include sections on in vitro fertilization and embryonic research. Britain’s 40-year-old abortion laws also would be open to amendment under the terms of the bill.

The government initially proposed to ban the creation of chimeras but changed its mind earlier this year under pressure from the scientific community.

Here is the statement from the bishops – note that the point is, "This shouldn’t be done. But if it is…."

2.1 We are opposed in principle to many of the procedures covered by the Draft Bill: procedures which we believe violate human rights, and thus should not be licensed under any circumstances. That said, we would very much welcome a ban on particular human rights abuses, even if other abuses, no less unjust, are unfortunately licensed by the State. An example would be a prohibition in primary legislation of the creation of embryos from the ova of aborted human foetuses,1 or of the creation of embryos in greater numbers than will be immediately transferred to the body of the mother. While we are opposed to all ‘production’ of embryos by a non-sexual act of manufacture, we would urge a prohibition of at least the mass-manufacture of embryos, many of whom will be discarded.